SAIIE29 Proceedings, 24th – 26th of October 2018, Spier, Stellenbosch, South Africa © 2018 SAIIE 3837-1 A RECONFIGURABLE ROBOTIC END EFFECTOR FOR MACHINING AND PART HANDLING – MACHINE TOOL SIMULATION C.E. Reddy 1 , J. Padayachee 2 & G. Bright 3 1,2,3 Department of Mechanical Engineering University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa 1 212502866@stu.ukzn.ac.za, 2 PadayacheeJ@ukzn.ac.za, 3 Brightg@ukzn.ac.za ABSTRACT Robot machining forms a significant portion of Industry 4.0 in Smart Factories. Industrial robots require an end effector to perform tasks. The purpose of this study is to research and develop a reconfigurable robotic end effector for machining and part handling. Such a device would eliminate the need of multiple robots for part handling and lengthy end effector changes. This research will involve the complete mechanical, conceptualization, detailed design, manufacturing and testing of this new end effector. The reconfigurable platform requires modular gripper architecture and compact machine tool system. Flexible tendon cable-driven grippers are versatile, compact and offer a large degree of compliance. Vibrations at the tool-tip results in reduced surface quality while instability can decrease spindle life. The spindle will be designed to reduce chatter and enhance dynamic stability. The concept utilizes a flexible gripper system in conjunction with a compact, lightweight milling cutter capable of machining non-ferrous metals. Analytical tools such as Kinematic analysis to determine gripper-finger dynamics, Vibration analysis of the spindle-tool to determine the frequency response function, Stability Lobes to determine chatter-free cutting parameters and Finite Element Analysis to determine strength properties of the mechanical design; will be utilized to enhance and validate the concept. 1 The author Is enrolled for an MSc Eng (Mechanical) degree in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of KwaZulu-Natal 2 The author is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of KwaZulu-Natal 3 The author is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of KwaZulu-Natal 875